Opinion: Beware any Supreme Court decision that put a crack in the church-state wall

To the editor: Even if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of Trinity Lutheran Church, whose preschool applied for a Missouri state grant to resurface its playground but was denied, on the narrowest of grounds, it will be one more step toward eroding the wall between church and state. (“‘Freedom of religion’ collides with ‘freedom from religion’ on a Missouri playground,” editorial, April 20)

In 1967, for example, New York state’s highest court upheld a program requiring school boards to loan textbooks to all students, including those in religious schools. It based its decision on narrow grounds also, holding that the program bestowed a public benefit for all children regardless of their school affiliation.

Making playgrounds safer at the church’s preschool may seem innocuous enough because it has a secular purpose, but it unavoidably has far-

reaching implications for all kinds of government aid to religious institutions.

Walt Gardner, Los Angeles

Gardner writes the Reality Check blog for Education Week.

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To the editor: The mere idea that not providing resources to religious schools that are being provided to secular schools is religious discrimination is laughably specious.

If the government were to provide the resource to Christian schools and deny them to Jewish or Islamic schools, that would be discrimination. Denying resources to all religious schools (thereby treating all religions equally) is following the dictate of separation of church and state that is embodied in the 1st Amendment, and is in no way religious discrimination.

R.M. LaCarr, Mt. Washington

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